Claudius of Besançon

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Saint Claudius of Besançon
Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
FeastJune 6

Saint Claudius of Besançon (

Henry Wace has written that "on this saint the inventors of legends have compiled a vast farrago of improbabilities."[3]

Nevertheless, Wace did not find reason to doubt that Claudius had come from the

Claudia. This family had produced another Saint Claudius in the 6th century.[4]

One of his biographers,

bishop of Besançon.[1] Donatus had written regulations for his canon priests; Claudius followed them assiduously.[4] He became famous as a teacher and ascete, eating only one frugal meal per day.[1]

After serving as a priest at Besançon, Claudius entered the abbey of Condat, at

Balthild, had persuaded him to do so), obtaining from the monarch an annuity.[1][4] Under Claudius' rule, the abbey thrived. Claudius had built new churches and reliquaries, and fed the poor and the pilgrims in the area.[4]

On the death of Saint Gervase, the bishop of Besançon, the clergy of that city elected Claudius as their archbishop in 685. He thus served, rather reluctantly, as 29th bishop of Besançon, according to the episcopal catalogues.

However, upon seeing that discipline had become lax at Condat, Claudius decided to abdicate his see and return as abbot at Condat."[1][3] He then died in 696 or 699.[3]

Veneration

After his death Claudius became one of the popular saints of France.

Burgundy before being brought back to Condat.[2] However, a document from the ninth century does state that his body was already kept in the abbey of Saint-Claude (Saint Oyend, Oyand).[1]

The town of Saint-Claude was originally named Saint-Oyand or Saint-Oyend after

Saint Eugendus. However, when Claudius had, in 687, resigned his Diocese of Besançon and had died, in 696, as twelfth abbot, the number of pilgrims who visited Claudius' grave was so great that, since the thirteenth century, the name "Saint-Claude" came more and more into use and superseded the other name.[6] Saint-Claude Cathedral
, in the town, was dedicated to him.

Claudius's relics were burned in March 1794, during the French Revolution.[4]

Queen Claude of France, first wife to Francis I of France, was named after him.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Saint-Claude (Municipality, Jura, France)
  2. ^ a b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Saint-Claude" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^
    A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines
    (J. Murray, 1877), 552.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h (in French) Saint Claude Archived 2007-12-31 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Matthew Bunson and Stephen Bunson, Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2003), 211.
  6. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Eugendus" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

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